Business First - June 30, 2003
If deal goes through, store could open in Shelbyville Road Plaza by spring 2004.
The owners of Shelbyville Road Plaza are negotiating a deal that would bring in a store that stocks more than 50,000 pairs of shoes—enough to fill a large warehouse.
Hagan Seay Properties is negotiating to bring the Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse brand to Louisville, said Benton Seay, president of Hagan Seay Properties.
“They carry branded designer shoes,” he said. “We are currently under negotiations and expect to commence construction in the late summer or early fall,” with a first-quarter 2004 opening.
Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse officials referred all questions about the potential new Louisville store to its advertising agency.
“Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse provides warehouse-style shopping for shoe customers looking for brand-name goods…at 20 to 60 percent off every day,” said Alex Van Winkle, president of Van Winkle and Associates, the Atlanta advertising firm for Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse.
Atlanta-based Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse has 38 stores in 11 states, including Tennessee, California and Florida. The Louisville store would be the first in Kentucky, Van Winkle said.
Charlotte, NC-based Rack Room Shoes, which has two stores in Louisville, owns Off Broadway Shoes.
The two store brands operate independently, Van Winkle said.
He added that Louisville is being considered for an Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse because “some of the retail elements of the market show that you have a fashion-conscious consumer who is concerned about getting the most for their money.”
Additional space also planned: Seay said the shoe store, if signed, would be located in a 22,400 square foot building that his company would construct at a cost of about $1.25 million.
Hagan Seay would lease the building to Off Broadway Show Warehouse. “It would go next to Wild Oats, but will not be attached to Wild Oats.”
The new store is the first tenant announced for phase two of the shopping center.
Seay said an additional 15,000 to 25,000 square feet of space will be built for other shops adjacent to the shoe store.
Seay said he hasn’t determined what it will cost to build the additional space.
Phase two also will include another 35,000 square feet of space adjacent to the Linens N’ Things store.
That construction may start about the same time as work on the shoe store, said Seay, adding that his company is in talks with a potential tenant for the space. He declined to identify the potential tenant.
The remaining space to be developed at Shelbyville Road Plaza is phase three, at the southern part of the shopping center property, Seay said.
Other shoe retailers not concerned: Just a block or so away from Shelbyville Road Plaza at Mall St. Mathews, the manager of Shoe Sensation aid the arrival of Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse might take customers away initially. But he doesn’t expect the long-term impact to be serious.
“If it brings out more traffic to Shelbyville Road, I think in the long run it could help us,” said tom Henes, manager of the Shoe Sensation store.
The potential arrival of Off Broadway Show Warehouse is not a concern for retailer Carol Hampton. She is a co-owner of a much smaller shoe store, Pix on Preston, located at 201 S. Preston St.
Hampton said much of her store’s business comes from the neighborhood near her downtown location.
“It would not affect me at all,” Hampton said of her downtown store. In spite of the slow economy, “we keep having a steady growth.”